Patricia Leavy, PhD is an independent scholar, novelist and public speaker (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is one of the most visible proponents worldwide of arts-based research as a means of public and creative scholarship. Patricia has published thirteen non-fiction books, including the best-seller Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice (Guilford Press, 2009), Essentials of Transdisciplinary Research: Using Problem-Centered Methodologies (Left Coast Press, 2011) and Fiction as Research Practice (Left Coast Press, 2013). She has also published two novels loosely based on interview research, American Circumstance (Sense Publishers, 2013) and Low-Fat Love (Sense Publishers, 2011). Low-Fat Love is Sense Publishers top selling title to date. Patricia is also the editor for four book series including Understanding Qualitative Research with Oxford University Press and Social Fictions, Teaching Gender and Teaching Race & Ethnicity with Sense Publishers. The Social Fictions series is a groundbreaking series and has garnered Patricia considerable attention. It is the first series by an academic press that exclusively publishes the products of arts-based research (full length novels, plays and short story collections informed by social research but written entirely in literary forms). Frequently called on by the media, she has appeared on national television, radio, is regularly quoted by the news media, publishes op-eds and is a blogger for The Huffington Post. She makes presentations and keynote addresses about arts-based research and transdisciplinarity at universities as well as national and international conferences. The New England Sociological Association named her the “2010 New England Sociologist of the Year” and she has recently been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry and a Special Achievement Award by the American Creativity Association (in recognition of the Social Fictions series and her work advancing arts-based research).